The Zoroastrian Manuscripts of the Rostam Jāmāsb’s Family and a New Dating of Videvdād 4100

Abstract

Abstract The manuscripts of two sons of Rostam Jāmāsb, Tīrān and Šahrām, are thematized in various works, including Mazdapour, Andrés-Toledo and Cantera, Boroumand Amin, Cantera, Martínez-Porro. One of the important manuscripts of this family is Videvdād 4100. Previous scholarship indicates that this manuscript was copied in 1871 AD. This date has been used as a basis for further orthographical and palaeographical analysis of this family’s manuscripts and for clarifying their relationship to other Avestan manuscripts. In this article, however, I argue that this date is incorrect. Furthermore, it has led to ambiguities in dating and interpretation of orthographical and palaeographical characteristics of other Rostam Jāmāsb manuscripts. Based on genealogical information from the colophons of the family’s Avestan manuscripts, as well as the results from other Zoroastrian manuscripts newly discovered, I review previous attempts to date the family’s manuscripts and offer a new dating for ms. 4100. I also aim to reconstruct the family tree of the Rostam Jāmāsb family as well as the history of their manuscripts. I argue that uncertainty of the calendar era in the colophons and marginalia yields incorrect results, highlighting the importance of considering all calendar era variants for correct evaluation of data.